Over Memorial Day weekend, Josh Rieder, of Sinton, set a personal goal to catch a shark at least 10 feet long. Over Labor Day weekend, he pulled in a 12-foot tiger shark off Padre Island, accomplishing a goal that he said others have taken 10 years to achieve.

"One three-day weekend to the next, it took us that long to accomplish that. I need a new goal now," Rieder said facetiously. He added that luck was largely to thank for catch, which was his largest to date.

After setting the goal in May, Rieder and his wife, Amber Rieder, spent almost every weekend at the beach fishing, Josh Rieder said. Sometimes, they would bring their five young children, who would "freak out and lose it" every time they had success, Rieder said.

The last weekend of August, the whole family went to the beach and Amber Rieder caught the largest stingray anyone in the family had ever gotten. They kept the stingray, and the next weekend Josh and Amber Rieder took the catch back to the beach to use as bait.

In a now viral Instagram video, Eli Martinez playfully spins a tiger shark named Jenn while diving in the Bahamas. "I've been working with tiger sharks since 2003," Martinez, who is from the Rio Grande Valley at the tip of Texas, said.

Media: Eli Martinez, Instagram/sdmdiving

Around 2 p.m. Sept. 1, just minutes after Josh Rieder had set out the bait, he hooked a 7-foot tiger shark. After a 20-minute battle, he pulled the shark in, measured, got a picture, and sent the shark back on its way. It was a nice catch, but it wasn't unprecedented, he said.

A few hours later, using the same stingray as bait, Rieder hooked another shark. It was a tiger shark again, but at 12-feet long, it was substantially stronger than the first one. Rieder fought the shark for about 45 minutes and said the shark made at least 10 solid attempts to escape before succumbing to exhaustion.

Some friends, who had planned to show up around that time anyway, arrived just in time to help the Rieders pull the shark in for measurements and photos. Again, they released the shark back into the ocean. It was the largest shark either Reider had ever been a part of catching, Josh Rieder said.

"We went out there very often and fished, so you play the numbers right and you're going to hit something eventually," Rieder said. "A 7 and then right into the 12 at the same place on the same day in the same afternoon, that's almost a fluke."

He said if he ever hooks a shark that big again, he'll pass it over to his wife or a friend to pull in.

"I would have no problem catching another big one myself, but I'd let somebody else experience it," Rieder said. "Once you do that, (you) want to share that with someone else."